


(Over)Protective Instincts

by makesometime



Category: Terra Nova (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Food Sex, Male-Female Friendship, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-11
Updated: 2012-05-11
Packaged: 2017-11-06 19:47:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/422541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makesometime/pseuds/makesometime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was undermining her through some misguided sense of love and the need to protect her from the evils of the world – completely dismissing her own clearly demonstrated ability to do so herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Over)Protective Instincts

Alicia had lost track of the number of times (Jim, jokingly; Mark, semi-seriously; Nathaniel, proudly) she'd been told she was "scary". She'd never believed it before.

But storming through the colony from her quarters, hair flowing freely behind her as she struggled to do up her jacket, the way people were jumping out of her path made her figure that maybe they had a point.

She practically flew up the stairs to Command, jacket forgotten, and threw the door open to find Nathaniel standing behind his desk. He was slipping into his body armour, readying himself for a mission.

Her mission.

"You bastard." She spat, striding up to his desk and slamming her hands on its glass top, setting the ridiculous collection of things on it rattling.

Nathaniel just smiled. "Good morning to you too, Wash."

One of her hands clenched into a fist while the other pointed at him accusingly. "Don't play coy, sir. At least have the goddamn decency to explain."

The smile stayed fixed firmly in place, his eyes flicking to the office door (likely finding it open, deciding not to mention it) and then back to her. "Explain?"

"You turned off my alarm." 

He nodded. "I did. You need your sleep."

"Bullshit!" Alicia shouted, so frustrated with him that she didn't care who knew it. "You turned it off so that I would oversleep and you could justify replacing me on the mission!" Her fist thumped down on the glass. "How dare you?"

Nathaniel bristled at this, his tolerance for her insubordination only going so far. "How _dare_ I? Last time I checked I was still the commander of this colony, lieutenant. Mission deployments are my decision."

"This mission has been slated for _months_. Elisabeth and I have things planned down to the tiniest degree – at your insistence, I might add. Why the sudden change of heart?" Alicia retorted, standing up to her full height and crossing her arms. 

"I considered all of the factors and was not willing to take a risk on sending you out there."

Alicia narrowed her eyes. There was more to this than he was admitting. A simple tour of their outposts to make sure the medics were properly trained was hardly the most trying thing she was ever likely to undertake. And it was _her_ mission, she and Elisabeth had worked damn hard on the best approach. _She_ was the combat medic, not him.

"Tell me the truth, Nathaniel, please." Alicia sighed, a weary hand swiping across her face. "Why did you do this when two months ago you agreed with every facet of our plans?"

The man in front of her visibly deflated at her resignation, slowly raising the zipper on his armour. "Two months ago we didn't know you were pregnant."

Were she a normal woman, Alicia supposed she might find his overprotection of her to be endearing. Somewhat... sweet? But to her it was overbearing, irritating, ridiculous to the extreme. "You're pulling me off the mission because I'm _pregnant_?"

His forehead creased, leaving him looking almost confused at her annoyance. "I won't apologise for wanting to keep you safe."

"Keeping me safe? By leaving me behind and going OTG with Elisabeth?" Alicia asked, her voice low, angry, hurt. "Because that worked so well last time."

He flinched at this, at the truth in her words, the pain they held. Because it was doubly true – the first time he and Elisabeth had both contracted a virus that stole them away from their loves. And the second time had nearly ended the same way – permanently. "Wash..."

Alicia just shook her head, walked away from him towards the other side of the room. He genuinely might not have realised the source of her frustration before, but he knew it now. He was undermining her through some misguided sense of love and the need to protect her from the evils of the world – completely dismissing her own clearly demonstrated ability to do so herself. And to do it again, so soon after the time that had almost torn them apart for good...

She felt his presence behind her before she even heard him move, his arms coming around her to rest on her stomach. Such an action usually never failed to warm her, soothe her, calm her nerves – this time she felt smothered, his actions meant to placate her, end their argument without him having to actively apologise for offending her.

"When we come back, I will make it up to you."

She snorted, removing his hands from her and turning to face him. "Will you? Or will you avoid it? Once you get back bruised and bloodied as usual, you think I'll be so relieved to see you that I'll forget your stupidity?"

His face fell at her continued aggressive mood. "Wash. Please. I don't want to leave with you angry. Not again."

"You should have thought of that before you stole my mission, sir." She said coolly, side stepping him and heading for the door.

But she never made it that far, a hand wrapping around her wrist and tugging her backwards, her resulting unbalance aiding her fall into her lover's chest as his arms wrapped tightly around her. She sighed, pressing her forehead to the unarmoured crook of his neck as his hands smoothed gently over her lower back. 

"I love you." He whispered, the gruff tone of voice and the way he tightened his hold on her letting her know he wasn't just saying the words for show, as some last-ditch attempt to change her mind.

Her hands clutched him to her, one on the back of his head, the other gripping one of the shoulder guards. "I love you too. Which is why I'm so angry with you."

She felt him swallow heavily and nod, fingertips digging in as his embrace turned into more of a desperate attempt to keep her with him. "I understand." He uttered and despite her better judgement, she believed him.

When he attempted to extricate himself from her grip she reacted immediately; the hand on his head became controlling, her free hand cupping his cheek and guiding his lips to hers. What she had meant to be a relatively sedate, reassuring kiss quickly turned heated, her teeth nipping at his bottom lip when he tried to deepen the contact, her nails scratching over his scalp. They were interrupted by a throat clearing in the doorway and they broke apart, chests heaving as they gulped in air. Turning as one they found Jim Shannon waiting, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. 

"Uh, Liz is ready." He said, looking back over his shoulder quickly. "Just thought you might want to... know." He cleared his throat. "Yeah, okay, I need to be anywhere other than here."

He fled without another word, leaving Alicia smirking as Nathaniel straightened his clothing. "You should go." She said quietly.

"I'll be back in four days, Wash. I promise."

"You get into trouble out there, call for backup. And I swear to god if you don't come back, I will kill you."

Nathaniel nodded (she pretended not to notice the way his hand twitched at his side with the desire to mock salute – at least he had enough sense to avoid that) and left Command without another word.

Despite the fact that her anger was still simmering barely under the surface and despite the fact that her and Nathaniel's issues had simply been postponed, she still followed him out and watched from the balcony while he loaded his things into the Rover and slid into the driver's seat as Elisabeth said goodbye to her husband.

And then the pair were leaving without a backwards glance. So Alicia made herself remember every single time that had happened since the attack on the colony, every single time they had returned to each other. To focus on anything else wouldn't help either of them now.

–

"He's doing this on goddamn purpose." Alicia growled, aware of the slight amusement in Jim's eyes on her.

"I'm sure he's not, Wash." He attempted in his best 'let's calm down the pregnant lady' voice. 

Unfortunately (as he had not yet learnt) this only served to rile her more. She continued to pace angrily across the floor of Nathaniel’s office swiping hair out of her eyes in frustration. "They're over a day late, Shannon. No contact since they left the third outpost to come back to the second. He's doing it on purpose."

Jim frowned, walking over to her and grabbing her upper arms to still her. His eyes no longer held mirth, instead shining with something like anger – something she hadn't witnessed in the man for a long time. "If he were out there alone, I might agree with you." He said, slow and measured. "But he's out there with Liz. Are you _really_ suggesting he'd purposely put her in danger?"

Alicia's shoulders dropped under Jim's scrutiny, the truth of his words hitting her like a punch to the chest. When his grip on her changed, his arms coming carefully around her form (tentatively almost, as if he feared her reaction) she melted into his warmth, her own arms circling his waist to draw all the comfort she could from him.

"Sorry. I'm not..." She trailed off. "We didn't part on the best terms. And as our luck goes, this mission would be the one to go wrong."

"The terms looked pretty good from where I was standing." He said, pressing his lips to the side of her head in an approximation of a soothing kiss.

"Things aren't always what they seem, Shannon." Alicia couldn't help the chuckle that left her. "But you would walk in on that."

"My timing is impeccable, Wash. I thought this was well established." Jim's arms squeezed for a moment before he pulled back and regarded her with open concern. "So we're agreed – Taylor isn't on a one man mission to give you even more grey hair with my wife as his unwitting accomplice?"

Alicia barked out a laugh. "Grey hair? You're one to talk." She said, swatting at him when he reached out to smooth a hand over her dark tresses. "Yes, yes, we're agreed."

He smiled, satisfied, and was about to leave when Alicia's comm device chirped. She answered it and the voice of Mark Reynolds filled the room. "Rover on the horizon, ma'am." Was all he needed to say for the two of them to rush out onto the balcony.

In the moonlight the cloud of dust following the small grey speck was more visible than the rover at first, but it was moving with enough speed to only be driven by Taylor. 

"Raise the gate!" Alicia called and she waited as Jim rushed down the steps to be there when the vehicle barrelled through into the plaza.

She watched Jim wrench open the door to the passenger side, saw the naked relief in his gaze when he apparently found his wife unharmed. Elisabeth barely had a chance to get her feet on the ground before he had pulled her into his arms, drawing her into a kiss that made Alicia's heart ache. The man had clearly been beside himself in much the same way as she was, but had hidden it extraordinarily well. She really needed to give him more credit.

Her gaze switched to the driver's side when the door didn't immediately open, the knots in her stomach intensifying at the delay. She should be down there, doing much the same as Jim but instead she stood apart, waiting, watching. Hiding, almost, from the possibility that she wouldn't like what emerged from the rover. (The fact that it was taking her twice as long to get down stairs these days with the added encumbrance of her growing stomach was a secondary factor in her hesitation, she had to admit.)

Slowly the door opened and she saw Nathaniel climb wearily out of the vehicle. Her eyes scanned him immediately and found absolutely nothing wrong – save for a little dirt here and there he was completely unharmed. She should have trusted him at least that much, she supposed. But it was easier now to focus on the relief flooding her system, the sheer pleasure at seeing him in front of her once more; the feeling was dizzying as much as it was infuriating – she'd used her relief as a tool in her argument, a claim for something he would exploit and here she was, feeling it as strongly as ever.

He looked about for her, his face outwardly devoid of emotion but even from her position in the gloom she could see the distress and confusion in his eyes – his fear that something might have happened to her in his absence. Finally he looked up to Command and saw her waiting and his mouth quirked just a little, his concern lost in an instant.

She started to go to him and he held up a hand to stop her but she continued moving, easing her way carefully down the stairs. By the time she made it down Jim and Elisabeth were nowhere to be seen, and Nathaniel was directing one of the soldiers to take the rover back to storage.

"Wash." He greeted, his adherence to protocol meaning his desire to embrace her in much the same way as Jim had Elisabeth was carefully put to one side.

"Sir." She responded, gesturing that they should walk together. He smiled and fell into step with her easily as she led them back to their quarters. 

"Everything okay in my absence?" He asked.

Alicia nodded. "Relatively speaking, sir. Not sure Elisabeth would be pleased with my blood pressure readings when we passed five days without contact."

He winced, hands flexing with the desire to reach for her, to stop her and explain, apologise – instead he continued walking, knowing such a outpouring of emotion would be better saved for the privacy of their home. "Our portable electronics got fried in the storm as we passed from outpost two to outpost one. The rover just about managed to get us to our destination, but once there we found they were without power after a lightning strike."

Alicia shook her head, small smile tugging at her lips. "Convenient."

Nathaniel opened his mouth to retort before he noticed her amusement, knew her to be joking. He chuckled, leading the way up to their front porch and opening the door for her. "By the time we helped them get fixed up it was easier to commit to a quick run back to the colony. The doc wanted to get home as much as I did."

Alicia hummed as she passed him, knowing he wasn't lying, still a little angry that they hadn't checked in once able. When he followed her inside and shut the door she struck, hands pushing on his shoulders to pin him against the wood. "You are _so_ lucky you weren't eaten by a Carno." She growled, not giving him a chance to respond before her lips met his.

His groan of relief mingled with her moan of pleasure, his hands cupping her ass and pulling her as close as her stomach would allow. His tongue slid past her lips without any resistance and she battled him for control with a lightness in her soul that had been sorely missing for the better part of the past week. When his hand shifted, slowly coming between them to cup her and rub strong fingertips over her through her fatigues she gasped, stepping back with her lower lip caught between her teeth.

"I should get to bed. Long day." She said, walking backwards away from him.

He grinned wolfishly and made to follow her but she just smirked, tipping her head in the direction of the living area. His gaze turned in that direction to find a pile of blankets and pillows on the couch and the look of outrage that passed over his features actually made her snicker.

"Wash... come on..." He said, just barely keeping the whine out of his voice.

She shook her head, smiling broadly. "Sorry. When you were away we got used to the extra space." She said, passing a hand over her stomach. "Gonna need you to earn your way back."

"Woman." He grumbled, advancing on her. "I can do that if you stop walking away from me."

"You promised you'd make it up to me, right?" Alicia asked, and he nodded. "Then you've got _all night_ to think about how."

With one last smile she turned and walked to their bedroom, closing the door behind her. His disgruntled shout echoed through the unit and she laughed, getting ready for bed. She fell asleep to the sound of the shower running and the rather pleasant thoughts in her head of what she might have just brought upon herself.

–

The next morning dawned bright and clear, Alicia's body flooded with a contentment she didn't expect after a night alone. (For all her teasing of him the previous evening she never truly slept well without him around, never felt entirely comforted without his arms embracing her.)

Then she felt it, the warm passing of calloused palms over her skin; cracked open her eyes to find Nathaniel soothingly rubbing her stomach, leaning over her to press light kisses to her as he whispered nonsense to their growing child.

"Hey." She greeted sleepily, rubbing a hand over her eyes. "Who said you could come in here?" She continued, her husky voiced teasing drawing a chuckle from him.

"Couldn't resist." He said, looking up at her, his beard tickling as his head turned. "Besides, I come bearing gifts."

He nodded to the bedside table and Alicia looked over to find a tray of breakfast, all of her favourite foodstuffs waiting for her attention. All things that she knew full well he couldn't make without burning down the kitchen.

"You know." She murmured, pushing herself up on her elbows. "You really need to stop employing the teenagers of this colony to do your dirty work for you."

He laughed at this, pushing away from her to reach for the tray and place it between them on the bed. She snuck a small berry-type fruit from a bowl before he could fully set it down, suddenly extremely aware of her hunger.

"I didn't think my peace offering would work quite so well if it was barely edible. And Miss Shannon seemed more than willing to help, I think she's trying to get herself to the front of the line for babysitting duty."

Alicia snickered, well aware of (and thoroughly amused by) the fact that her daughter was going to be a test run – or maybe even a deterrent – for Mark and his new fiancée in relation to their own children. But she wasn't foolish enough to turn down the chance for free babysitting, even if it was four months early.

"Still." She replied. "It strikes me that you should be able to make something like pancakes at your age."

"If you'll teach me, I'm willing to try." He said, and Alicia smiled fondly at him, knowing he wasn't just talking about the food.

She reached out for the syrup and he passed it without comment. "I think we can work with that."

They ate together, seated across from each other on the bed as they discussed the reasons behind her anger, the motivations of Nathaniel going behind her back and the way they should both approach the issue in future, before Elisabeth inevitably demanded she start to slow it down.

Once they were finished with the food Nathaniel moved the tray to the floor, before gently situating himself over her until she fell back against the pillows, brushing her hair out of her eyes as he lowered his mouth to hers. They kissed lazily, taking their time, in no rush to do anything other than reacquaint themselves with the other's touch after days apart. When Nathaniel broke away, his eyes twinkling with trouble and mirth, Alicia's stomach flipped at the thought of whatever idea had crossed his mind.

He sat up across her legs he pushed her top up and over her head, exposing her to his gaze. Drinking her in for a moment he passed his hands over warm skin, over curves that hadn't existed a few short months ago, teasing spots that were newly sensitive, areas that had only increased in desire to feel his touch. And when he reached over the edge of the bed Alicia instinctively knew what was coming even before he returned with the syrup dispenser in hand.

"How does ruining the sheets make up for pissing me off?" She asked as he carefully drizzled thin lines over her stomach, painting mindless patterns on her skin.

He shrugged, moving the syrup up her chest, over her breasts to circle her nipples. "It doesn't. But I don't plan on wasting any of this."

He put the dispenser down, admiring his handiwork before tracing over the marks with his tongue, wet heat replacing sticky warmth as he erased the evidence. A tumble of needy moans and whimpers left her mouth during his advance, only halted when he pulled his own tank over his head. His chest caught on her still slightly tacky skin when he reached her breasts, using the tip of his tongue to chase lines to her nipples, spreading the syrup before engulfing her peak and sucking it clean.

"Nathaniel..." Alicia groaned, hands alternating between clutching at the sheets and holding his head, urging him to use more force, be less gentle. He responded with a nip to the rise of her breast, harder suction on her other nipple, her eyes rolling at the sensation.

Once satisfied with her syrup-free state he rested his chin on her sternum and she watched as he licked his lips, catching every last bead of sweetness. "Yes Wash?" He asked, mouth quirking into a satisfied smirk.

"Stop playing, you made your point."

He tipped his head forward, kissing her between her breasts. "And what do you want?"

She huffed, reaching for his biceps to pull him up on a level with her. "Fuck me already." She demanded, voice thick with arousal.

The pleasure in his resulting smile was blinding. "How do you want it?"

She lifted her head to capture his lips. "Behind me." She murmured against him.

It was a position they had recently discovered a fondness for, during experimentations for the time when her stomach would encumber them too much for him to be above her. Alicia enjoyed the access it gave his hands to her body, the gentle way they could reach their release together. 

She turned onto her side as he moved off of her, easing her own pants down as he stripped off his boxers. Then his chest was up against her back, a warm comfort she would never get enough of, his hand sliding down her side slowly to cup her ass and then her thigh, lifting to allow him access. His length probed her entrance before slipping inside and she let out a grateful sigh as he penetrated her fully.

"Missed you." She whispered, rocking back against him as he withdrew the slightest amount before thrusting back in.

"Missed you too." He replied, kissing the side of her neck, the line of her jaw. 

The arm beneath her cupped her belly protectively as his other hand passed over her skin, tweaking, pinching, stroking in response to her vocal cues. It found its way between her legs and she arched her back when a fingertip brushed her clit, a cry leaving her when the touch turned firmer, more intentional. She reached one arm back to flatten her palm against his ass and encourage his thrusts into a faster rhythm as her other clutched desperately at the pillow. His lips on her became searching and she turned her head to capture his in a clumsy kiss punctuated by groans and whimpered intakes of breath.

When they came it was almost simultaneously, their reactions mingling as the pleasure shot through them, a slow, rolling, orgasm that set her tingling from her scalp right down to her toes. She smiled at the look of bliss on Nathaniel's face as his hold on her tightened reflexively.

When he remained resolutely behind her, not making any attempt to withdraw from her, she decided to break their silence. "Shouldn't we get to work?"

He hummed, kissing her once more. "You're more than welcome to. But your CO authorised a late start this morning."

Alicia laughed. "He did, did he?"

"The couch is hell on my back, Wash." He grumbled, pulling her closer. "Just give me an hour."

Knowing that even the briefest sleep spent in his arms would be worth double anything she'd managed the previous evening, Alicia settled down along with him; with his soft even breathing soothing on her skin as she joined him in stealing a few more moments of peace.


End file.
